Space Navigation

In the field of space navigation, the institute mainly investigates the autonomous navigation of spacecraft. In deep space, GNSS is not available, thus, positioning and navigation of spacecraft needs to be carried out by on-board sensors. This implies that an efficient and fail-safe sensor fusion is of great importance. Moreover, swarm navigation becomes more and more important in recent years. The challenge here is to navigate the complete swarm of spacecraft as well as the spacecraft themselves within the swarm such that the mission goals, e.g., on positioning accuracy, are met.